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ADDRESS 



Maj.-Gen. John A. Dix. 



RECEPTION 



SEVENTH REGIMENT, NATIONAL GUARD, S. N. Y., 



MEMBERS WHO HAVE SERVED 



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ACADEMY or MUSIC, JANUARY 31, 1866. 



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NEW YORK: 

FRANCIS k LOUTREL, PRINTERS, 

45 Maiden Lane. 

1866. 



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T^'dU-O. 



CTeneral Dix, liaving been introduced by Colonel Clark k 
to the assembled guests, addressed tliera as follows : 



Ladies and GENTLEMiiN : It attbrds nie great pleasure to 
perform the service just announced to you by the Colonel of 
tlie Seventh Regiment of the Xational Guard of the State of 
New York — to reiterate his welcome to those of the former 
members of the regiment who have gone forth during the late 
war, under other organizations, to defend the government of 
tlieir countr}' against a gigantic combination to overthrow and 
destroy it. This reunion of those, who in the past have been 
l:)ound together by the ties of a common association, has its 
familiar analogies in the incidents of domestic life. As when 
the heads of a household, after the lapse of years, reassemble 
their scattered children who have gone out into the battle of 
life, to congratulate them on the successes they have achieved 
and the reputation thej have acquired, and to thank them 
for sustaining and advancing by meritorious actions the family 
name and renown. In like manner the Seventh liegiment re- 
unites its former associates, to congratulate them on the dis- 
tinction they have gained for themselves, and to thank them 
for the honor which the lustre of their services has reflected 
upon the corps and the country. Having had most of those 
who were members of the organization at the commencement 
of the war, and of those to whom this reception is tendered, 
under my command, I feel that my duty to-night will be best 
performed by addressing all as members of a common brother- 
hood, and by briefly recounting the valuable aid they have 
rendered in standing by the country during the ordeal of tire 



throu«:h Mliicli it lias triumphantly passed. And first, gentle- 
men, let me congratulate you on your good fortune in living 
at a period in our history marked by the most extraordinary 
domestic conflict of this or any other age. I say your good 
fortune, for whenever a communitv is menaced bv the o-reatest 
of all calamities — ^the destruction of its nationality — it nmst 
1)6 the most earnest <lesire of every good citizen to participate 
in the danger, to do what he can to avert it, and to contribute 
by toil and endurance and self-sacrifice to mitigate its effects. 
You stand in this honorable relation to the country. Those of 
y(ju M'ho have not been in the field during the entire war, 
have in repeated instances volunteered your services to uphold 
the national standard, which, by the blessing of Providence, 
still waves over us, the hallowed emblem of the authority of 
the Union, with no dimness on its folds excepting that which it 
has gathered from the smoke of honorable and successful battle. 
At the outbreak of the rebellion, when the Sixth Massa- 
chusetts Regiment was attacked at Baltimore, and the deepest 
concern was felt for the safety of the capital, you were among 
the first to hurry to the scene of action. A gentleman high 
in position at Washington gave me, two or tliree years ago, an 
account of the condition of things there at the time of your 
arrival. Open communication with the Xorth had been en- 
tirely suspended ; railroad travel and the transportation of the 
mails through the State of Maryland had been broken up by 
force; and no intelligence could be obtained from the loyal 
portions of the Union except through secret messengers and 
couriers, whose journeys were always performed with difficulty, 
and sometimes not without absolute danger. At this juncture, 
when all was uncertainty and doubt, when each revolving hour 
came freighted with some new burden of anxiety or peril, a 
column of armed men, Avith bayonets glittering in the sunlight, 
was seen entering the Pennsylvania Avenue, near the Capitol ; 
and the feeling of relief and security was unspeakable when 
the welcome intelligence spread throughout the city, as if by 
Bome magnetic influence, that the Seventh New York had 
come to o])pose t(.> the gathering cohorts of treason tlie a?gis of 
its discipline and its name. 



\ 



In the early spring of 1862, when the Army of the Poto- 
mac was lying before Richmond, when Washington and Bal- 
timore and the adjacent country were almost denuded of 
troops, and there were well-grounded apprehensions of a rebel 
raid from the Yalley of the Shenandoah, you volunteered your 
services a second time. I was in command at Baltimore when 
you arrived there with your gallant companions, the Twenty- 
second, the Thirty-seventh, the Sixty-ninth, the Seven ty-iirst, 
and, I believe, some other x^ew York regiments whose num- 
bers I cannot at this moment recollect. You were detained at 
Baltimore by the Government at my special request ; and dur- 
ing a large portion of this term of your service you occupied 
tlie post of honor — Federal Hill — that remarkable promontory 
rising up in the heart of the city, and seeming to be placed 
there by nature as a site for a citadel. AVhen you occupied it, 
it was crowned by a fort, as you see it before you (pointing to 
a painting representing it), built in the summer of 1861, to 
protect the city from external attack, and, in case of need, to 
defend it against itself. Happily, tlie unshaken loyalty of the 
Baltimoreans, througli all trials and temptations, rendered the 
latter service unnecessary. 

In the summer of 1863, when Gen. Lee invaded the State 
of Maryland with a powerful army, you volunteered your serv- 
ices a third time, and were assigned by the Government to the 
defence of the city of Baltimore, on which an attack was con- 
sidered imminent. During a portion of this third term of 
service you were again in the occupation of Fort Federal Hill, 
and during the residue on duty in the interior of Maryland, 
remaining in thetield until after Gen. Lee had retreated beyond 
the Potomac. You were then suddenly recalled here to aid in 
quelling the riots, and your reappearance had a powerful in- 
fluence in restoring order and in saving the city trom further, 
devastation. 

In the summer of 1861r, when I'ebel raiders from Canada 
were plundering our frf>utier, you tendered your services tome 
as connnanding officer of this department ; and they would 
have beeu accepted had not some new regiiiients, which had 
never been in the field, claimed the privilege of serving the 



('ountrv. Most fortunate and enviable is the couinuinity in 
"which the eniiihition of its citizens is not to evade military 
duty, but to be received into the public service and to be as- 
signed to posts of danger! Giving you all the praise which is 
most eminently your due for your promptitude, your patriotic 
spirit, and your alacrity on all occasions in accepting and court- 
ing military service, yet the crowning distinction of your 
regiment is in the large number of officers -which you have 
furnished for other oro;anizati(^ns. I hold in mv hand a roU 
of five liundred and fifty-seven of your members, who received 
commissions in the army, the navy, or the volunteer service. 
Nine-tenths of the nund:>er were serving with the regiment 
when the war broke out. Three rose to the rank of major- 
general, nineteen to the rank of brigadier-general, twenty -nine 
to the rank of colonel, and forty-six to the rank of lieutenant- 
colonel. Many whose names are on this roll of honor are 
sleeping in soldiers' graves. Others are moving about with 
mutilated limbs and with frames scarred by honorable wounds, 
the silent but expressive memorials of faithful and heroic serv- 
ice. For years before the war you devoted yourselves with an 
assiduity and a zeal worthy of all commendation to martial 
exercises, and I believe I may safely say that there was scarcely 
a man in your ranks who was not capable of leading other 
men — of commanding a platoon, a company, a battalion, or a 
regiment. And the gratitying result is, that under nearly 
every battle-fiag which the State of Xew York unfurled, you 
had an honored representative. The historian Justin, in his 
account of the preparations of Alexander the Great for his 
Asiatic expedition, says that some t)f the corps he organized 
were so well disciplined that one would have considered them 

not so much soldiers as the chosen leaders of soldiers : 

I' 

"iVb/i tarn milites quain magistros milit'ne dectoH putarea.'''' 

You have tairly earned the same praise, and are justly en- 
titled to the honorable appellation of militia; magistn — the 
leaders of soldiers ! I do not know so strikino- an illustration 
of the truth of a maxim which is usually considered of modern 
origin, but which is as old as the Augustan era, when it was 



proclaimed bv the most graceful of the poets of imperial Rome, 
in that pure Latinitv for which he was so distinguished — 

" In pace., ut sapiens., aptarit idonea hello ^ " 

which may be liberally interpreted : " In peace, if you are wise, 
you will prepare for war." To have furnished the most re- 
markable proof of the profound wisdom of this ancient maxim, 
is a distinction to be remembered with gratitude by your fel- 
low-citizens and t<:) l)e cherished with a manly pride by your- 
selves. 

It is now nearly ten months since the trial of arms between 
the Xorth and the South was brought to a termination ; and 
T trust it will not be deemed inappropriate if I present to 
you, who have borne so conspicuous a part in it, some consid- 
erations arising out of this still absorbing subject. I do not 
intend in what I say to strike a single note of discord. I 
should greatly regret to speak one word which should not be 
in harmony with the scheme of reconciliation now in progress 
between the two sections of the Union. The views I desire 
to state are purely philosophical, applicable to all ages and all 
nations, and drawn from the sober lessons of experience, which 
no community can wisely disregard. It was in the month of 
April last that the war was brought to a close by a sudden 
collapse of the whole vital power of the insurgent States. Xo 
equal period «>f time in the history of any ])eople has ever 
been so crowded with extraordinary events. During the very 
first days of the month were fought those remarkable battles 
before Petersburo-, equally honorable to the genius and skill of 
the conmiander and to the gallantry and steadiness of his 
troops. The evacuation of Richmond immediately followed. 
A few days later General Lee surrendered, Avith the remains 
of the Army of Virginia, the tirst and the last hope of the re- 
belli(ni. And here I desire to say that I consider this result, 
and such, I believe, will be the judgment of posterity, as the 
direct consequence of one of the most remarkable movements 
in history — the great march from the Wilderness to the Chicka- 
hominy, the James and the Appomattox — army opposed to 
army, one pursuing and the other pursued, a conflict at every 



8 



step, not one square mile of territory traversed b_v the com- 
batants M'hicli Avas not crimsoned with heroic hk)od ! The 
nuconquerable perseverance, the unwavering; persistence, with 
which one single purpose was pursued — throngh the memora- 
ble march and the patient investment which followed it — pre- 
pared and compelled the surrender of the most mimerous and 
best disciplined army the insurgents ever brought into the 
tield. I do not, of course, lose sight oi' the subsidiary move- 
ments, which Avere parts of the grand and comprehensive plan 
of the General-in-Cliief Near the middle of the month (on 
the 14th\ the old flag Avas hoisted over the battlements of Fort 
Sumter — the same flag against which the first rebel missile was 
hurled ! And on the evening of the same day Avas enacted 
that darkest deed of infamy Avhich has ever disflgured the an- 
nals of the United States — the assassination of our noble- 
hearted and lamented President, I have no comment to make 
on this act of horror. J^o language of reprobation or abhor- 
rence can illustrate <»r intensify its atrocity. It is one of those 
great crimes which, in the history of our race, occur only after 
intervals of centuries ; crimes Avhich the recording angel sheds 
no tear to blot out ; crimes Avhich are Avritten down in the 
great chronicle of e\'ents in characters of blood as a perpetual 
memento of the madness and the malignity of Avhicli human 
passion is capable. Near the close of the month (leneral 
Johnston surrendered Avith his army, compreliending in the 
capitulation the Avhole rebel force north of the Cliattahoochie, 
endn'acing, in fact, nearly the Avhole organized military power 
of the rebellion, and thus terminated the Avar. 

These events are becoming rapidly incorp(»rated into the 
solid substance of our history, and mankind Avill pass a calm 
and impartial judgment upon them. It is very difficult for any 
of us, Avhile they are so fresh in our remembrance, to speak 
of them Avith becoming moderati< »n and disinterestedness. But 
although we may not be the most impartial judges of a (-on- 
flict which has brought Avitli it so mnch skill in leadership, so 
much heroic courage and still more heroic endurance in all 
ranks of our condjatants, both by land and sea, and so much 
patriotic effort and cheerful self-sacrifice on the part of the 



9 

great body of our people, jet it lias taught ns some lessons 
which it may not be unbecoming in ns to refer to, and whicli 
it may be useful for all the generations of men now and here- 
after to reflect upon. They are not new lessons ; on the con- 
trary, they have been tauglit over and over again to those wlio 
have gone before us, and have always been forgotten when the 
events with which they were connected have faded away in 
the distance, and the attention of men has become engrossed 
by new and more urgent interests. 

First of these is the great truth that the course of military 
successes is always from North to South — from frosts and 
snow to flowers and sunshine. Our very instincts teach us 
that it must be so, and all history confirms it. It is not be- 
cause the Southera nature is less spirited, or less capable of 
high and heroic achievement ; but because the Northern mus- 
cle, elaborated under a colder sky and through more invigorat- 
ing influences of climate, acquires more compactness, tenacity, 
and strength, carrying with it (for the mental and physical 
conditions always assimilate) a greater moral power of endur- 
ance. Southern races are, for the most part, precipitate, im- 
passioned, fiery, vehement, sometimes breaking down all oppo- 
sition by force of their resistless impetuosity. Northern races, 
on the other hand, are calm, deliberate, persistent, determined, 
and as immovable as a rock, against which wind and storm 
are idly expending their fury. The remark may seem fanci- 
ful, and yet I believe it to be historically true, that great mil- 
itary successes, considered in reference to parallels of latitude, 
are subject to a law analogous to that which governs currents 
of running water. They do not rise above the level of their 
source, or if can-ied to a greater height by some special force 
they subside t(> their former level as soon as that force is with- 
drawn. Accordingly we find that the great tides of concpiest 
in all ag-es have flowed from north to south or east and west 
on nearly the same parallels of latitude. It required the ex- 
traordinary genius of Julius Cesar, the most finished military 
commander, perhaps, that ever lived, to carry the victorious 
arms of E.ome, when the great republic was in the fullness of 
its prosperity and power, a few degrees of latitude north of the 
2 



fo 

metropolita-n centre. And yet we all remember that it was 
more than a hundred years after his first invasion of the little 
island of Great Britain before it was reduced to the condition 
of a Roman ])rovince. Even then only the lowxr part was 
subdued, and the Emperor Adrian was compelled to build a 
wall across it to protect the Koman soldiery from the incur- 
sions of the Caledonians, the predecessors of the Scotchmen of 
our day. Now I venture to say, that if that island had been 
fifteen or twenty degrees further South, it would not have re- 
sisted the Roman power successfully through a single cam- 
paign. The operations of Hannibal in Italy may seem to 
conflict with my theory, but not if they are properly consid- 
ered. It is true he marched up through Spain, crossed the 
Alps, descended into Italy, and obtained several signal victories 
over the Romans. But his operations did not contain one of 
the elements of permanent conquest. They were nothing but 
a protracted raid ; and after a few years he was compelled to 
return to Carthage tt) defend that city against the very people 
whom he was invading. There was a remarkable instance 
eight or nine centuries later of the truth of the proposition I 
have stated. Some six hundred years atter the (Jhristian era 
— when mankind, as if in defiance of the celestial messages of 
the Great Teacher, had sunk into a moral torpor as dangerous 
to all the interests of civilization as the living paganism which 
bad preceded it — God raised up an avenger in Mahomet to 
destroy all that deserved to perish, and to rouse to action all 
that was worthy of being preserved. The creed of the Pro- 
phet was full of error, but it contained one vital truth, and 
under its influence his followers were roused to a wild enthu- 
siasm which nothing could resist. It was in the name of the 
one and the ever-living God that their cimeters flashed to the 
light ! The great tide of Islamism poured down through 
Western Asia into Africa, across Egy])t and the Desert of 
Barca, whelming the ancient Pentapolis, over the narrow 
strait which separates Africa from Europe, sweeping across 
the sunny plains of Andalusia and over the vine-clad hills of 
Grenada, until the great wave burst at the base of the moun- 
tains of Asturias. It did not rise in the West above the level 



11 

of its source in the East. And thus this great human deluge, 
impelled by the spirit of conquest and religious frenzy, bearing 
on its crest the trophies of Eastern science and art, was poured 
out over Western Europe, and planted there some of the 
richest germs of civilization, to be purified and perfected in after 
ages by the clearer light of Christianity. 

Wherever armies have gone to the I^orth for the purpose 
of conquest, they have been defeated. The Greeks and Ro- 
mans were constantly repulsed by the rude nations north of 
them. The legions of Varus were cut to pieces in the wilds 
of Germania by ARMmius and his followers. Xay, the great 
modern conquerer of Europe, when he undertook — if 1 may 
so express myself — ^ campaign against the Arctic Circle, with 
one of the most numerous and best disciplined armies the 
world ever saw embodied, was discomfited — not so much, it 
is true, by the arms as by the strategy of his enemies, and 
by the rigors of the climate. His inmiense host, like that of 
Xerxes, was broken to pieces, and he was compelled to retreat, 
leaving thousands of his followers sleeping in bloodless death 
upon the frozen plains of Muscovy. On the other hand, when 
great conquering armies have been sent to the south, they 
have nearly always been victorious. The Romans over- 
ran everything south of them down to the shores of the 
great African desert— one of those seas of sand which are 
far more impracticable than any waste of waters. The 
Romans, in tlieir turn, were overrun by the barbarous na- 
tions north of them. The Goths, the Normans, the multi- 
nomial races which were swarming century after century out 
of the great northern hive, overwhelmed all Europe down to 
the very shores of the Mediterranean ; and even Southern 
Italy saw these rude warriors, with frames compacted almost 
to the hardness of iron by hyperborean frosts, unbuckling their 
armor and lying down in the summer radiance on the heights 
of Sorrento, by the blue waters of Baia?, and even in the clas- 
sic grotto of Pausilipo. In like manner armed multitudes from 
Central and Western Europe poured down into Syria under 
the unconquerable banner of the cross, and wrested the Holy 
Sepulchre from the hands of its infidel possessors. The flaming 



12 

eimeter of the fiery Saladin, as described' in Walter Scott's 
Crmadets, falling in fast but ineffectual blows on the massive 
battle-axe of the cool Plantagenet, is but a type of what the 
world has seen and will continue to the end of time to see, in 
the conflicts of southern with northern races, 

I wish some of our Canadian friends were here to take 
comfort from these suggestions. AVhen the rebel raiders, Avhom 
they were harboring, crossed our frontier to plunder our vil- 
lages, shoot down our unarmed people and give this city to 
tlie flames, through a scheme of incendiarism M'hich for atroc- 
ity has no parallel in the annals of barbarism ; and wlien a 
certain Department commander, whose name I will not men- 
tion, with a frontier of nearly a thousand miles to guard, with 
only six military posts along its whole extent, and without 
two hundred men in any one of them, gave orders to the 
commanders of these slender garrisons, in case the depreda- 
tions were repeated, to pursue and capture the marauders, 
even if it were necessary to cross the astronomical line which 
constitutes the boundary between the two countries — the stout 
hearts of our northern neighbors need not have been disturbed 
by any imaginary apprehension of invasion. Ko, gentlemen ; 
whenever the tide of emigration, the only instrument of con- 
(piest the United States employ when unprovoked, shall rise 
again in the East, it will move on across our own territory to 
Kebraska, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, California, 
Oregon, and the calmer shores of the Pacific. Or, if it should 
deviate from our own parallels of latitude, it will not be in 
the direction of Hudson's Bay and the coast of Labrador, where 
the bosom of our mother earth is hidden from the sight of her 
children during more than half their natural lives, but down 
into the sunny districts of the palmetto, wliere the reproduc- 
tive powers of nature are at work throughout the whole circle 
of the year, and where the magnolia and the orange tree load 
the atmosphere with perpetual fragrance. I know that the 
mental and muscular energy of the North will gradually give 
way, in ol)edience to the universal law, to the amenities and 
the seductions of the climate; but not until they shall have 
done their work by waking up those soporific districts to the 



13 

new life and the intense activities ot* this earnest and enter- 
prising age. 

Another lesson which this war has taught is, that human 
slavery, in some way or other, and at some stage or other of 
its existence, is always calamitons to those who maintain it. 
The jnstice of God is snre to manifest itself, in some form of 
retribution, against the injustice of man, even though it be 
through the slow operation of what we call natural causes. 
Wherever the subjugated class does all the work and the 
governing class does none, wherever the latter seeks to evade 
the universal sentence of earning our bread in the sweat of 
our faces, the former must accpire a physical superiority, 
which, in the end, is sure to work out its own deliverance. 
We have not waited for this tardy process of centuries. 
Slavery with us has perished through the insensate attempt of 
the masters to extend and perpetuate it by destroying their 
own government. It has gone down amid the clash of arms 
and the shock of battle ; and the amendment to the Consti- 
tution just adopted has confirmed and executed what the 
behests of war had decreed. This great social revolution has 
been accompanied by an equally great marvel. Slavery has 
been abolished in Delaware and Kentucky by the votes of 
Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina ; and those who were 
most earnest in defending and seeking to extend it, have 
" conquered their prejudices," and are marching on, with the 
great army of emancipators throughout the world, to the 
majestic minstrelsy of universal freedom ! 

These are two of the great lessons of this war. As I have 
already said, they are not new, but they have been brought 
out of the darkness by the throes of contending populations — 
thrown oif, if I may so express myself, like flashes of light 
from the great mirror of history. But these old lessons are 
not the only ones this war has taught. It has illustrated a 
new truth of far greater value than any political moral which 
can be drawn from the annals of the past. It has demon- 
strated beyond contradiction that the strongest of all govern- 
ments in times of great peril is that of a republic. It cannot 
well be otherwise, notwithstanding all we have heard from 



14 

uionarclusts of the weakness of republican institutions. The 
H'reat mass of tlie people are a ])art of the o;overnment. The 
governing administration is always the work of their own 
hands. Through the principle of popular representation, 
their wishes and opiniojis are impressed on every movement it 
makes, and on every measure it adopts. They feel that the 
destruction of the government would involve the loss of all 
that is most dear to them — their domestic security and peace, 
their property, and, above all, the political status they hold in 
the great scheme of self-o'overnment. The abilitv of such a 
government to defend itself against foreign aggression is only 
to be measured by the aggregate physical fc>rce of the whole 
community. In times of internal disorder, throwing the 
insurgent district out of the account, its power is the same. 
Under arbitrary systems, the rights of the government are 
distinct from and antagonistic to those of the people. When- 
ever the government is in danger, those who live under it and 
who consider themselves debarred of their just rights, are 
very apt to think that if it goes down, their own condition will 
be no worse, and may perchance be ameliorated. The ability 
of such a government to defend itself is limited, apart from 
the aristocratic classes, to so much of the physical power of 
the connnunity as it can bring into its service by force. Out 
of these radical distinctions has sprung up the feeling of hos- 
tility to our political system which has existed from its foun- 
dation among the friends of monarchical institutions. They 
have desired to see the experiment of self-government on this 
continent fail, in order to strengthen arbitrary government in 
other quarters of the globe. And yet the nations of Europe, 
with two exceptions, have maintained a strict neutrality in 
this contest. They would have been most unwise, as well as 
unjust, if they had not. For centuries the secondary govern- 
ments (»f Europe have been struggling, sometimes by separate 
action, and sometimes in combination, to enlarge the circle of 
neutral rights, and to restrict the rights of belligerents. In 
their course towards us, therefore, they have acted in accord- 
ance with a long-established policy in which they have a 
vital interest. But I do not place their conduct on this 



n 



motive. I believe they have acted in obedience to a con- 
scientious sense of duty. France and Great Britain, on the 
other hand, our rivals on the ocean, had, or thought they had, 
an interest in the destruction of this Union outweighing all 
prudential considerations. There is no doubt that Louis 
Napoleon did all in his power to induce Great Britain to 
unite with him in recognizing the independence of the insur- 
gent States. He availed himself of our internal disturbances 
to overthrow repidilicanism in Mexico, our nearest neighbor, 
and to set up a monarchy on its ruins, with a sovereign 
dependent upon himself. Yet, as the inferior of Great Britain 
on the ocean, he did not altogether disregard his obligations 
of neutrality ; and when our Minister complained to him that 
vessels were litting out in his ports to cruise against our com- 
merce, he promptly gave orders that they should be detained. 
Great Britain, on the other hand, conscions of her superiority, 
has been as unmindful of her neutral obligations toward us as 
she has always been unmindful of the rights of neutrals in 
others when she has been a belligerent. Slie permitted vessels 
to be built in her ship-yards, equipped in her ports, and 
manned by her seamen, to make war upon our commerce, 
and she has allowed them to depart against the most urgent 
remonstrances of our ministers, under the most frivolous pre- 
texts. Her cruisers, sailing under the rebel flag, have literally 
swept our commerce from the ocean. ISTay, more. For two 
years the armies of the insurgents were kept in the field 
through supplies of arms, ammunition, and clothing, from her 
workshops. I believe it no exaggeration to say that she has 
cost us one hundred and fifty thousand lives, and added fifteen 
hundred millions to our national debt. Gentlemen, I am one 
of those who believe that these wrongs must be redressed. I 
do not object to the postponement of our reclamations until 
our interaal trancpiillity shall be fully assured ; nor do I de- 
spair when a better spirit shall prevail in the councils of Great 
Britain of seeing our just claims acknowledged and disposed 
of by amicable negotiation. In the meantime we have this 
great consolation. The very aid which France and Great 
Britain, two of the most powerful nations of Europe, have 



16 



given to the insurgent cause, has only rendered our triumph 
the more marked ; and it may l)e tliat this prestige of success 
in a republic may react upon both those countries, and lead 
to a thorough reorganization of their social and political 
systems. We have reason to believe that the people of both, 
notwithstanding the bad faith of their governments, Ayere on 
our side. The Liberal party in England, under Cobdex, 
Bright, Goldwin Smith, and others, openly declared them- 
selves in our favor. For this reason, if there were no other, 
it would be our most earnest Ayish that the struggle which is 
going on in both countries between the many and the few — 
the many for the assertion of their just rights, and the few for 
the maintenance of their usurpations — should have their issue 
in a popular triumph. AVe do not interfere with the domestic 
concerns of European States. But nothing would be more 
gratifying to the American people than to see the whole brood 
of aristocratic non-producers, of whom the mythical " Dun- 
dreary ■ ' is the type, compelled to go to w^ork and earn their 
bread by manual or intellectual labor. 

I would haye been glad to refer briefly to some other 
topics — to have spoken some words in praise of the zealous 
efforts of our able and patriotic President to restore good feel- 
ing between the different sections of the Union — something in 
regard to the reorganization of the system of labor in the 
Southern States on its new basis, a subject deeply concerning 
our prosperity as well as tlieirs. But the time allotted to me 
in the proceedings of the eyening is drawing rapidly to a 
close ; and I know, for I have been young myself, that there 
are many youthful hearts which are beating with impatience 
for the commencement of the festiyities. I will, therefore, 
trespass for a single moment only on your kind indulgence. 

From the era of the rebellion we take, as it were, a new 
departure in the progress of our political system. Old and 
disturbing issues haye been settled and should be buried out 
of sigrht. Slavery is abolished ; and henceforth the soil of the 
Nf)rth American continent is never to be pressed by a servile 
foot. The right of secession is exploded, and it is now settled 
that this Union is never to be dissolved excepting by the vol- 



17 

untary action and concnrrence of a majority of all the parties 
to tlie fundamental compact ; and if attempts are made from 
witliin or witliout to break it up by force, it is by force to be 
maintained. The doctrine of State sovereignty, whicli has 
been brooding over us for three-quarters of a century like 
some ill-defined portent of evil, has vanished as a disturbing- 
dream ; and it is now understood, if not conceded, tliat the 
reserved rights of the States — rights which should be vigil- 
antly guarded and resolutely maintained by themselves, and 
scrupulously respected by the Federal Government — are but 
rights (»f exclusive jurisdiction ; and that sovereignty, one and 
indivisible, is the attribute of the central power alone. But 
this is too large a question to be discussed on an occasion like 
this — almost too large to be stated, however careful the form 
of words, without subjecting him who states it to the danger 
of misapprehension. 

With this readjustment of our social and political relations, 
and after this triumphant exertion of our power of self-preser- 
vation, new responsibilities devolve on us. We must enjoy 
with greater moderation the blessings and privileges which 
Providence has vouchsafed to us. We must exert our power, 
if possible, with increased forbearance, even for the assertion 
of our undeniable rights. We must practice toward all witli 
whom we have relations, whether within or without the pale 
of our political system, the most strict and impartial justice. 
Since the days of the Revolution, when our fathers were led 
through seven years of toil, and sufltering, and peril, almost 
as manifestly by the hand of God as the children of Israel were 
led through the wilderness, we never have been so significantly 
admonished of our dependence on Him, or have had so much 
cause to be grateful for our deliverance from surrounding evils. 
This sense of dependence, and this feeling of gratitude, must 
never be permitted to fade out of our minds or hearts. The 
altars of our religion and our freedom must stand side by side, 
that their fires may ascend in one common flame to Heaven. 
Then shall we have reason to trust that the blessino- of God, 
which has been with us and our fathers under so many trials, 
will continue with us to the end in our new career of prosper- 
ity and power. 

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